And I was a never miss watcher forever.

I just don’t feel like it anymore.

Sorry not sorry. Even when I sometimes agreed with him, he was unwatchable in my opinion.

I would watch his new rules... but they are less funny now than in years past

Because they aren't funny.

Smug, arrogant, condescending, sexist, unlikable, etc. etc. My name for him now is "Nazi Fluffer." It would be a real shame if that caught on...

* I was the one who gave up on him long ago. I couldn't stand his guests. I could not stand his arrogance. I could not stand his know-it-all piety. Still my husband would continue to tune in for the monologue and New Rules segments (just the jokes in the New Rules... not the lecture at the end.)

Now we're both Maher-Free! And, as it turns out... since he was the last vestige of anything we enjoyed about HBO, now "Max", we cancelled our streaming subscription to that as well!!

No more Maher and a little extra $$$ in our account. Win-win!!

Well some anyway.

10 bucks for an 18 pack for Eostre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

Wife and I gave up on Bill Maher couple years ago. Comes across as an arrogant ass wipe, to me.
Two of us in the same room at the same time. My poor wife.

In the past I found him alternately funny and abrasive. But never right leaning. So why in particular would he have lost left-leaning audience?

He himself predicted all this. He's been a libertarian since Politically Incorrect, and sometimes not in a good way but always pretty consistent. For most people whether he's funny just depends on whose ox is getting gored. I don't find it funny when he is punching down to the left, but some of his criticisms are more valid than we'd like to admit, and I think his dinner with the national fuckstick was naive and ill-advised, but again that's who he has always been. One thing I can say with some admiration is that the man is not a weathervane. He is certainly wrong about some things, including some very important things, but he's not wrong be cause he hasn't thought about what he believes or because he picked his positions based on who he could fluff or who might get pissed off. And I can think of a few times when he has flat out publicly admitted that he was wrong because a guest or an unforeseen news item caused him to reconsider his position. Very few people with his public exposure are willing to do that, ever.

the Worst Person in America.

but there are enough crazies right now that it's not obvious unless you know the story already

...that being an asshole is kind of built into the whole libertarian thing. It reeks of "me got mine" and is one of his unfortunate points of commonality with his more toxic right-wing guests. But again, that's always been a big part of what he is, not just a schtick but his real core beliefs. It does make him a sharp critic of our enemies when they are stepping on his gown, but you have to remember sometimes he'll turn around and be like WTF on us too.

They want what they want when they want it, and they don't like anyone telling them "No."

Why the hell would he do that????
Haven't read the Larry David article but didn't know it referred to Billl Mahr. Will check it out

On the show.

It's like falling for a teenage prank

The Kid Rock interview and Maher's "Book Report" segment are easily searchable. But then you'd be a horrible person for watching.

are super frustrating because their efforts at 'new takes' merely normalize an unprecedented, outrageous, dangerous trends and group of people in power. Maher is joined by Smerconish and Dan Abrams in my book. Haven't watched Maher in a long while.

Wish I could repeat the process of walking away from him, ever since he showed up at trump's White House for dinner, knee-pads in hand.

Additional blessings upon Larry David for ripping Maher a new asshole for the trump dinner, with that satirical piece in the NY Times a couple of days ago. Those of you who still have the stomach to watch Maher's drivel, let us know if he has any response to David's article on his upcoming show. (David's "My Dinner With Adolf" piece was posted here at DU, in the General Discussion forum.)

But his crusade against "woke" liberals got so incredibly tiresome. And from the start it was clear that it was entirely personal and self-serving. He objected to people who were objecting to HIM: His misogyny, his Islamophobia, his barely concealed homophobia and racism.

He's out of touch, has no clue what is really going on with normal non rich people, but he was still funny at times. Where he lost me was his bigoted takes on trans folk wich got really really bad during the presidenital campaign. He was basically saying that woke is indoctrinating children and convincing them to get sex change surgeries. He's a fucking bigoted POS.

Bending the knee so he doesn't become a target to a petty old tyrant who just happens to have the nuclear codes.

I stopped then and haven’t watched since.

I gave up on Maher’s holier than thou attitude a year or so ago.

John Oliver’s show is outstanding, policy focused and avoids the kind of sanctimonious self-fellating that Maher engages in every week.

I do find it odd that people always want to talk about Maher here, but Oliver is rarely mentioned.

I'm with Mickey... Fuck Bill Maher!

If I'm interested in one of the guests, I'll tune in. I'm not above rolling my eyes at Progressive Pieties.

I didn't watch the Kid Rock episode that spawned this.

What do you consider Progressive Pieties?

Maybe I should have said Progressive Orthodoxy.

Progressive Orthodoxy?

Let's just say that in my 24 years on DU, I've become more of a Centrist. I don't hate everything Maher says.

that you don’t hate?

I simply said I'll continue to watch his show.

I'll keep watching it - occasionally - and occasionally agreeing with some illiberal opinion of his, but I also enjoy it when he takes his act too far and the panel pushes back. That happens fairly frequently.

do you occasionally agree with?

We have belonged to our local Cinema Society for decades, on average 20 films each season, and attend the Palm Springs Film Festival each year, another 15 or so. Many of these are foreign films and, unfortunately, never make it to the U.S. Add another 5+ for our local International Jewish Film Festival and we’re up to over 40 annually. Not to mention those we watch on streaming services or attend outside of the festivals.

We also attended the BFI London Film Festival once but decided hey, we’re in London! One can usually find a movie online, so we headed to the West End and saw some incredible plays instead, including War Horse, one of my all-time faves, off the charts.
Also, we have season tickets to three theatre groups and attend a few concerts from time-to-time.

All to say, thanks for the recommendation, but this genre of movie has never been high on my list. Although, Adrienne Barbeau... hmmm.

been a misogynous prick. I have no clue why liberals watch him. He is a fool.

the studio after Covid. I remember watching a few episodes after that. Sometime around then his “funny” turned to snark, plus having shitstain a like Kid Rock and Ann Ghoulter on the show - I just lost interest.

which doesn't make him uncommon. However, his willingness to embrace woo about vaccines began to surface in other ways. He has been a good example of accepting scientific facts as canon without bothering to practice the thought processes that go along with scientific discovery and method. Rational skepticism must be tended to like a skill as it is often in opposition to our intuitive thinking.

Maher's contrarian reflexes did him no service during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Rather than take aim at the politicization of one of the biggest science stories of his lifetime, he was willing to entertain paranoid postulations that were easily disproven. Combined with whatever regulatory hassles he went through around the installation of solar panels at his estate, it really kicked his irascibility to another level.

That is precisely when I soured on him. I remember him talking about that. How astute of you!

no more for me

You know better!

I feel like he changed or something changed him.

n/t

5 or 6 years ago when I realized how misogynistic he was.

Has just become more obvious over the years.

I think Maher was more of a contrarian know-it-all asshole than anything else. He's never pushed libertarian economic policies. He's never been for taking away Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. He just likes smoking weed and wants to make sure every single person hears about it every single time they see him.

He's doubled down on so many of his bad takes and Covid-era stupidity that he's painted himself into a corner. I wouldn't be surprised if HBO fails to renew his contract next time around and he switches to full time bitching on his loathsome podcast. Good lord is he terrible at interviewing people! I'm morbidly fascinated by Club Random... he's such a disgusting creep, his leching after women and total disinterest in what anyone has to say comes off like a parody of an interview.

Which of course, lends itself to parody. Tim Heidecker is brilliant at dismantling every single element of the current Maher to hilarious effect:

Tim's parody of Rogan was just as good

Now I won’t. I’d rather scoop out the cat box and then maybe give it a good wash and wax. Brush the cats teeth. Go find a plumber with toenail fungus to treat. Go back to work - yeah, lots of things I’d rather do than watch Bill Mahar now.

He was spending nearly every episode bashing Muslims and when someone hates one group they tend to hate others like with Gen Z recently when it comes to Bill Maher.

If it wasn't for that I probably would have stopped watching when he had RFK Jr on his bad podcast to blame SSRIs for mass shootings. I take Zoloft myself and it has been like a miracle drug as far as treating different symptoms.

If it wasn't that it probably would have been when he platformed Elon Musk to talk about the "woke mind virus" which is a dog whistle that Maher often himself uses.

I consider him as like the Jimmy Dore for Centrists meaning he sheepdogs viewers to the right or toward Trump.

He even donated to Clinton and Harris campaigns. That doesn’t give him absolution either.

down the toilet along with other wanna be clown acts.

I am grateful to Rhiannon12866 for posting his programs. I don’t like all of them; I stopped watching when Bannon was oh so sure that they can elect him for a third term. But some guests are interesting and his new rules are often on the mark.

One cannot expect to agree with every appearance.

(me) on a D board with a very limited membership?

Your admonition to just shut up is noted and rejected.

When I see him I want to 🤮!

After a few minutes I didn't understand the appeal he had to Democrats, found him to be an insufferable know it all, shut the show off and never watched again.

Having seen clips of him since, I'm very happy with my initial opinion of the twit and glad i never wasted any more time watching him.

kiss trumps ass! Never was a big fan of him!

who you dumped years ago because of a growing ick factor, and now realizing how smart you were to follow that intuition.

I grew to loathe the smug prick who's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. Being a useful idiot for Donald Trump was the last straw.

I don’t have even a shred of emotional investment in any of the Celebrity or Talking Head Name Tags (Olbermann aside). So when the tabloid cavalry comes ready to defend a sacred cow from the faintest whiff of backyard BBQ smoke, I just sit back and enjoy the show with popcorn and zero Fs to give.

(which is probably just as unhealthy as watching cable, but less commercial air-time)